Squeaky Clean Baby!

OK, so there is nothing cuter than a naked baby! And Ainsley is no exception to that rule. After her fun bath with Bubba, she got away from me and was running around naked dragging her towel around. So how could I resist a couple of shots?

Bathtime kiddos!

The other evening both kids needed a bath and Ian asked if he could take a bath with Ainsley. He loves playing with her when she's taking her bath and he thought it would be even more fun if they were both IN the tub at the same time. How could I refuse? I ran water in my big tub and plopped both kids in and they had fun for a really long time!

What I love about Ian today.

I love that he is so go-with-the-flow. I love that he begs to go scootering with the neighbor kids! I love that he is enjoying his trampoline. We spent so much time indoors the last year or so, it is so nice to have him out in the fresh air! I love that for some reason when he hit age 6, he IMMEDIATELY stopped trying to come sleep with us. He now comes in around 10pm and tells us he's tired and going upstairs to potty and brush his teeth and go to bed. It's weird, we've been trying for years to get him to sleep in his own bed and POOF! he's sleeping in his own bed like a big boy! Crazy! I absolutely adore his beautiful face! He has the brightest eyes and the longest lashes still and his smile is priceless! Brady and I sure made pretty kids!

What I love about Ainsley today!

The way she calls butterflies, fu-fu fwies. The way she now tells everyone "Happy Birthday" instead of "hello". She no longer asks for you to "hold her", she asks to "hold you". Her cute little butt! The way she wants me to give her options of clothing already! She is very adamant about what she likes to wear. Shirts with puppies, kitties and other critters are favorites! She likes to "hi-five" now. You ask her "gimme five!", she does, then "up high!" and she does, then "down low!" and she looks at you and goes "tooooo swow!" The way she calls monkeys "monks" and donkeys "donks", don't ask me why, but it is cute as hell! The way she'll crawl up to the middle landing on the stairs, then lay her head down and say, "SOOOOOO sweepy!" and she closes her eyes! Little Toot! She's been a Crabby Patty since she had the flu last week and tantrums are on the rise. I kept hoping since she was a "difficult" baby that she'd be a sweet toddler, but I have the feeling that Terrible Two's and Three's are on the way!

A few more... just cause they're cute!

More McKinney Falls pics

Sunday Afternoon Hike

We packed up the family and headed out to McKinney Falls Park today. I've never been there before but heard good things about it. It was very sunny and pretty hot, but the scenery was interesting. We were also scoping it out for a possible camping trip. Turns out that camping may not be that great there all the primitive sites are just too close to the hike and bike trail. I am also thinking that if this camping thing is a hit, we may need to purchase the yearly Texas park passes so we can save some money on camp site fees and such. Anyway, here are some photos of the family enjoying the day!

Kids in a tent!

Here is the new tent and the kiddos playing in it. I'm looking forward to the trip in April it should be fun (granted it could possibly be hell too!)

Not even 20 months old and reading Nat'l Geographic!

Valentine's Day 2008

Ainsley's first gluten-free cupcake!

I don't think she missed the wheat or dairy in the least, do you?

Who says Valentine's Day is nothing but hearts and Cupid?

Ian's little Messy Art and Science co-op had its little Valentine's Party yesterday. Poor Ian, he worked SO hard for the past few days as for some reason, unbeknownst to me, the rule was you had to bring a box for valentines and you had to bring a hand-made valentine for each child in the co-op AND their brothers and sisters! This ended up being 20 kids that Ian had to hand-make valentines for. Needless to say, he now has a healthy dislike for this little holiday! Granted, I did most of the cutting of shapes and such, but he did all the names in stickers and pasted everything on. It was tedious and he hated it! But, his hard work paid off and the valentines he made were the hit of the party! Now I ended up making the valentine boxes as Ian had just had enough of all things Valentine and since I had made Ainsley's box (for obvious reasons) he begged that I make his too. How could I say no. I did Ainsley's all up in bugs. All the bugs are made out of hearts, the wings of the butterflies, the bodies of the ladybugs, it turned out cute. Ian asked for a nautical theme, so his has a bunch of little heart-shaped fish and stingrays, not to mention one cool looking octopus! He loved his box and was proud to put it out on the table! And it was filled with plenty of valentines and goodies! Maybe Valentine's Day didn't turn out so bad after all (for the kiddos at least!)

More hiking and fun!

Hike at St. Edward's Park

I haven't had much time to sit and blog as of late, and in all honesty, I should be cleaning house right now, but oh well! I never got around to posting any of the photos from the hike my mom and I took the kids on. It was a great hike, we saw lots of things, Ian spent alot of time throwing rocks into the creek and Ainsley spent most of her time trying to get INTO the creek!

Piggle gets new shoes!

I went out shopping for a new robe, which I REALLY wanted and I found one... yea for me! While I was at the mall, which is such a rarity, I thought I would buy the kids some new shoes. Ian unfortunately didn't luck out, there was nothing I was willing to buy for him. I just want him to have another nice pair of sneakers and some sandals, but no luck. Ainsley on the other hand lucked out. We found a really cute little pair of brown Mary Jane's with little pink flowers, VERY cute. Once I was sure they fit and I let her walk around a minute, I put her back in the stroller and went to take the shoes off, BAD IDEA! "NOOOOOO MOMMY!!! NEW SHOES, NEW SHOES!!!" So I asked her, "Ainsley, do you want to put your tennies back on or do you want to wear your new shoes?" "NEW SHOES MOMMY, NEW SHOES!!!" So off we went with little brown Mary Jane's, a pair of black sweat pants and a red t-shirt. Not the best matching, but there was NO way I was gonna try to pry those shoes of that girl!

Ian, my little brainiac!

Today we finished up his chapter review for his math program and I have to say, the little fart impressed me! Out of a maximum of 72 points, he missed 4 points and it was over something silly, he got confused over his right and left, so therefore colored the wrong triangle purple! He understood the concept, he just zoned on right vs. left. When I told him what he missed he laughed at himself and said he was a dork! The majority of the subject matter dealt with Roman numerals, addition and subtraction, grouping and organizing a jumbled group of numbers into both ascending and descending orders. I don't think I remember doing stuff like that until 3rd grade! But he did great and he was so proud of himself! I just love that. Homeschooling is definitely hard, but days like this make it SO worth it. To see that he is truly progressing and to see the pride that he has when he knows he's done well is just such a gift! Mama's proud of her boy!